Life Story of Diego Maradona and the Hero of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro

DBasia.news – Diego Armando Maradona died on November 25, 2020 or exactly four years after Cuban leader Fidel Castro died. Maradona died on the same date as her hero.

Argentine football legend Maradona once revealed that his hero was the late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. Maradona even said that Castro was like his second father. Even Castro’s face was immortalized on Maradona’s feet.

Castro once urged Maradona to enter politics. However, until he died at the age of 60, Maradona had not yet been able to fulfill his political aspirations. Nonetheless, Maradona played a role in championing left-wing leaders throughout Latin America.

Apart from Castro, Maradona is a staunch supporter of Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and Evo Morales from Bolivia. Inevitably, Maradona took part in raising the prestige of these leaders.

“Everything Fidel did, everything Chavez did for me was the most powerful thing that could be done,” Maradona said in a television show in 2007.

“I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.”

Maradona, a child factory worker who grew up in a slum town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, first met Castro in 1987.Maradona met one year after helping Argentina win the World Cup and four years before the fall of the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of economic hardship in Cuba.

The unusual friendship between this quirky footballer and the avid revolutionary was deepened earlier in the century when Maradona spent four years in Havana trying to get rid of his drug addiction.

“Starting from these humble beginnings, Castro is his idol,” said Alfredo Tedeschi, an Argentine TV producer now living in Belgium who has become a close friend of Maradona.

“It felt like he fell in love (with Castro), and then came Chavez, Morales and the others,” said Tedeschi.

Tedeschi recalls Maradona knocking on his door and proposing to make an impromptu visit to Castro. The Cuban leader received only a few minutes as soon as the two arrived in Cuba and immediately completed all his busy work agenda, in order to spend three hours with Maradona.

“They always discuss politics. Diego is very interested in politics,” said Tedeschi.

According to Tedeschi, Maradona was an effective propaganda tool for Latin American left-wing leaders. “Diego is the kind of person that whatever he says has an impact,” said Tedeschi. “And for Fidel, such propaganda is welcome.”

Maradona had a profound influence on the Latin American left. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote on his Twitter account “Maradona’s friendship with Cuba and especially with Fidel makes him part of the people of this country.”

In addition, the successor of Morales and Chavez, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, also expressed his condolences on Twitter. Maradona voiced support for Maduro in the face of US sanctions against his government.

“With deep sorrow in my heart, I know of the death of my brother, Diego Armando Maradona, a man who felt and fought for the poor, the best football player in the world,” Morales wrote.

In an interview with Argentine newspaper Clarin in 2018, Maradona said he would consider entering politics, perhaps as the vice presidential candidate for Peronist presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez in the 2019 presidential election to overthrow the then conservative government.

“Fidel told me that I have to devote myself to politics, and I will partner him with Cristina,” said Maradona. “I witnessed the people suffering, the people who could not make ends meet until the end of the month.”

Fernandez, who is now vice president of Argentina, chose another path. But on Wednesday he paid tribute to his former admirers. “It’s sad. The legend is gone. Eternal forever, Diego, we love you.”